The 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will mark the completion of Haas F1 Team’s debut season, the first American Formula 1 team since 1986.
The team have impressed in their debut season, especially after finishing in the points in sixth in the opening Grand Prix in sixth with Romain Grosjean. They went from strength to strength after continuing the points streak; but in contrast there have been some disappointing moments after brake and reliability issues have meant both drivers haven’t finished all the races.
In total, there has been ten retirements, despite these set backs they have still shown progress though. Guenther Steiner, team principal, believes the 2016 Formula 1 season has been a very challenging mission for everyone at the team.
“We’ve been building up this team for more than two years, almost three years,” said Steiner. “So it has been a very exciting and a very challenging mission.
“I call this year our first season because we showed what we can do, but we worked on it for three years. It has gone so quickly that it’s been incredible. To have the opportunity to start an F1 team – how many people can do that? So for me on a personal level, it was really something.
“If you’re a kid, you dream of things like this, and we got it done. It wasn’t me on my own. It was a lot of people working with me. How you define success is very difficult, but getting here has been fantastic.”
So far this season, the team have earned 29 points, the most of any new team in this millennium. Their finishes mean they will finish eighth in the Constructors’ Standings. This position is something that they had a good feeling that they could achieve at the beginning of the season.
“For sure if you wish something you believe in it, but would I have signed up for eighth?” added Steiner. “Absolutely. That is what we were going for and we had a good feeling we could achieve it, but nothing is for certain in F1.
“You need to go out and compete and it seemed to be that eighth was very secure after the first three or four races, but then in the middle of the season somebody could have done a better job than us because we lacked a little in performance. So yes, eighth is what we deserve.”
